Sears is a terrible company

Or at least the service department is. But since my experience with their so called "service" department, I will never ever shop there again. And I suggest that no one else does either. Did you know that we were told by their technicians that it is not an uncommon practice to make people with warranties on their A/C units wait 3 months for a repair? In the middle of summer? If you want the whole story, check out the blog Miguel just put up. The language is not for delicate ears. But how better to convey anger and disappointment? So read it at your own risk. :)

This is what happens.....

....when someone like me, ahem, slightly OCD, can't stop thinking about what shot I am going to do next. Katie actually initiated these shots, although by the end she was a not so willing model. LOL I love the pink and thanks to Grandma for the outfit. Oh and the hat, yes, I found it at a thrift store. Oh and then we plopped Sam down on the chair, oh yeah, another thrift store buy :) and took his picture. Fun! There are lots more pictures. But the real reason I took these is because I bought a strobe for my birthday 3 months ago and I never learned how to use it. Well tonight I did. These were taken at 9pm at night, so I had no natural light to work with. I am so happy I finally figured it out. Things like that are hard sometimes when you are self taught.

Ok and one more

I dragged Katie out to play in the yard in the hot Georgia sun and took my camera with me. Too cute! The editing on the first one is intentional. :)





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Another photo post

Here's another photography shot of Sam from today. Poor kid. He's my practice model.Not sure about the crop on this one, but I didn't have anymore picture to work with and it was the only one where he was looking at me. :)

Vienna...oh and one of Kate

Too cute. My sister's dog.



Katie in the rain this afternoon.
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An update on Sam

So Sam had his 2 month check up yesterday which included a whole bunch of vaccinations. 6 to be exact. 5 sticks in the legs and 1 oral. I know there is a lot of debate on vaccinations, but I will just tell you right now that I personally feel that I would really regret it if they became sick with an easily preventable disease. But that's really not the point of the post, I just wanted to throw it out there. Ok to get the point, Sam is growing like a weed. He weighs in at 12 lbs 8 oz (a 5 lb 8oz gain since we got home from the hospital), he's just over 23 inches long, and is a very healthy active little babe. The pediatrician was happy with him and we'll be back for another checkup and of course more shots in 2 months. Sam reacted well to the shots, just a little sleepy. But he was is his normal happy self this morning. Oh and in the last picture. You can tell my sweet Kate is never far away.

Fernbank Museum

So yesterday we went to Fernbank Museum with Sara, Avery, and Zoe. Katie had a lot of fun. I think next week we are going to the Science Center to go check out the planetarium. Anyway, enjoy the slide show of the snapshots from yesterday!

How do you know when your kid is tired?

How about when you are talking to them while you are cooking and literally mid-sentence they pass out on you? While at the table mind you. LOL Poor thing. This was two nights ago. We made dinner a little late because Miguel got home late and she just passed out. Of course this may be one of the reasons she was tired.
We spent a good portion of the early evening running around outside pretending to be a butterfly fairy. She was "flying" up and down the driveway and around the yard. Cute. Unfortunately for me she has taken to wanting to wear the wings, the fairy crown, and carry the wand EVERYWHERE we go. Le sigh.......2 year old girls. Gotta love them. I will remember this fondly when I am older. Right now.......well let's just leave it at that.

Oh and before I forget...

On Friday, Miguel went hiking with his friend Curtis. Curtis by they way is fresh off an expedition from either Mount McKinley or Mount Rainier. He's done both, I'm just not sure which was the most recent one. Anyway, so Miguel and Curtis, hiked up and over Blood Mountain to the lake and then back up and over back to their car. A twelve mile hike and Miguel was home by 4pm on Friday. I was impressed. Good job Miguel!

So what was I up to this weekend?

Takin' pictures as usual. LOL I had a shoot on Saturday with a very sweet family. We captured some great moments and I think the kids enjoyed themselves. You all remember I'm still building my portfolio so anyone who wants some portraits done send'em on over. :) I also tried to replicate a shot, with my own kids, I've seen being done lately. Part of me likes it and part of me doesn't. But it was a hard shot to get with a 2 1/2 year old and a 2 month old. So it gets in the post because of the work that went into it. Oh and by the way, the difference in the black and whites is intentional. The first on eis a traditional black and white, while the second one is one I call a chocolate black and white. I like it. Anyway, we also went to Michael's yesterday looking for craft stuff for Katie to do. When we came upon the clearance isle.It's so evil to go down that isle when you're me. I did however find these fake bundles of flowers that would be really cute for little girl portraits I think. So I made Katie try them out yesterday, although she wasn't a willing recipient. So the shots weren't exactly what I was looking for, but hey she's two. And yes, she is the same top she was in last week. I like that top. :) In any case, I am sure there will be more pictures to come of Katie using the craft stuff we got yesterday. In fact, I'm thinking lunch and then crafts. Fun, fun!

Bath time

So Katie has taken showers with me for awhile, but recently has started hating it when she gets water in her eyes. First we tried goggles in the shower and that worked only briefly, until she started messing with them while in the shower. Then she would get water in her eyes anyway. So I told her no more showers, baths only.
Which honestly is more work for me, but I don't mind so long as she doesn't scream at me when it's time to wash her face and hair. Unfortunately, Katie tries to "help" a little too much when we are giving Sam a bath and it can become a little bit of a problem for me. So I put Katie in the big girl bath tub, Sam in the the little infant bath tub and let Katie play while I get Sam bathed and dressed. Soon I hope they can bath together without incident. But this is what it looks like in the bathroom at night. Sam on the other hand loves his baths. He can be screaming his head off in hunger, pain, etc. and the moment you put him in his bath, he'll quiet down and coo and smile. Such a happy little guy. I hope he stays that way. I would hate for that to change at all. One of these days I need capture one of his smiles where you can see his dimples. It's too darn cute.

Flowers and such

And because it's such a precious picture to me, I wanted to post this one. Katie, Sam and I walked to the front of the neighborhood where I let her grab a couple of flowers. I'm sure my neighbors loved that, but who cares. I only had my super zoom, which isn't great for portraits, but I think it's a great picture anyway.

Guess who's 2 months old today?

Why Sam is of course. :) He is growing by leaps and bounds, as they all do. He is WAY chubbier than Katie ever was, but maybe that's a good thing since Katie is such a slight little kid. He can confidently roll over when on his stomach. We haven't yet mastered the back to front roll yet, but we try. He loves kicking his feet and trying to swing them over to get to his side. Sam can sit for about a minute or two when propped up by something and then he inevitably falls over onto his side or worse his face. He coos and talks to us. He is finally getting into somewhat of a good daytime sleeping pattern. And even better he is sleeping fairly well at night. I believe that 3 or 4 out of the past 5 nights he had a 7 hour stretch. Typically from 11pm-6am or 10pm to 5am. With the exception of last night which was 10pm to 6am. I love it! It may or may not continue but one can only dream. There's your update on our little man. He's doing well, and we just love him to pieces. One day soon he's going to be running around with Kate, getting into who knows what trouble. :)

Kate and Sam

I took this one of Kate and Sam today today. Yes, he was falling asleep and she was being goofy. But I still like it. :)

Umbrellas with feet

I have tons of pictures like this from today. It was one of those great cooling summer rains. Not too heavy, not too light. It was so enjoyable that the birds were chirping still. I love those kinds of rainy days. Katie enjoyed playing with the umbrellas, and at one point she was walking around with two of them. And just for the record, Katie LOVES to jump in puddles. But then don't all kids? I'm letting her do pretty much whatever she feels like today. It's all about Katie and Sam since they sat through the shoot I did yesterday. Sam did great with it, Katie did not. All my babysitters out there, I will be asking for some help in the future. :)

Another sample from the shoot yesterday

We also did some shots out at the park. I got some sweet sweet captures. Thanks again to Michelle!

Just a sample from my shoot today

Tripp was such a cutie today. He turns one this month and so we did his one year portraits and they were so much fun! I love smiley happy kids. He was so laid back too. We spent 2 hours taking pictures and he did great. Oh and that IS chocolate cake he's eating.

Chunky Monkey

8 weeks old today!

Swimming and watermelon

So we had a busy week. My brother was in town and we did a bunch of stuff. :) On Wednesday we went to my sister's house and Katie went swimming and ate watermelon. Good summertime fun. Here's Katie in the water. She is pretty confident, as long as she is floating Maybe next year she will ready for real swimming lessons. Next summer, she'll be almost four. Time flies!

Katie went to dance class again today

Katie went to dance camp again today. Today's theme was Cinderella. She was a little hesitant today, but she went and stayed anyway. My brave little girl. It seems her and Avery had a blast. She even ran to me after class and was all "Mommy!!!!!!". That's what a mom likes to hear. Their craft today was to make crowns which Avery is proudly displaying in the last picture. Such fun little girls are. I am glad Katie does well staying and participating in class. Next week I think we are sending her to preschool camp. I can only hope that goes as well.:)

A few of my favorite things

My new favorite shoes


My current favorite song

Only Heart by John Mayer

My favorite little girl
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My favorite men (in yellow)

I hope everyone had an excellent 4th of July!

I hope everyone had a delightful holiday. We had a relaxed one, and it was nice. We spent the afternoon shopping for shoes. :) And then we came home and had a cookout and waited around for the fireworks we can see from the house. It's great not to have to go anywhere for spectacular fireworks. Thank goodness for the well off people that like their fireworks at the country club. LOL Yesterday we went swimming, which of course Katie loved. She's going to be a fish like her mom. I can spend hours upon hours in a pool. In any case, hope you all had a great weekend. Oh and for all you moms out there, my 7 week old slept 8 hours last night. (This is the part where the angel choir comes out and sings "Hallelujah") I feel so much better today. Still slightly sleep deprived, but he slept from just about 10pm-6am for me. Probably a fluke, and I'll be on here again, grunting and complaining about being sleep deprived, but it was nice to have a break last night.

Robin and Claire

I convinced Robin to bring Claire over and let me practice yesterday. Well, actually it didn't take much convincing. LOL Enjoy the slideshow of all the pics, I think they turned out pretty well.